Disdain for Lilies
by ForeverLovingToRead
Summary: Just because her name was Lily didn't automatically mean they were her favorite flower. Unfortunately, giving her lilies was a mistake everyone made. Well everyone except the one person who left her roses everywhere. With every new guy she dated was a new opportunity to find this one person who knew her better than everyone else in the world. But finding him isn't that easy.
Over the past seventeen years, Lily Evans had developed a level of disdain towards the flower she had been named after. There was nothing wrong with lilies, in fact they could be quite beautiful. But when you received lilies on your clothing, jewelry, as every bouquet of flower you've ever received and as part of every present from every person for every holiday whether they were part of the present itself. Her friends and family had gotten creative over the year trying to make sure the flower was incorporated by adding lilies on the wrapping paper or on the card. The point is, you would get tired of them too.

Sending lilies was a mistake everyone made, including Lily's parents. Her last birthday, they had sent her a beautiful silver lily, it must have cost a pretty penny and Lily knew she would never wear it except when she was home with her parents.

There was only one person in the entire world that knew of her animosity towards the flower for they had never given her a lily, and she didn't even know their name. For her birthday or christmas, even when she was having a really bad day, she would go back to her room and find a single red rose. There was never a note nor had anyone ever indicated that it was them. That meant that every boy that asked her on a date became a new suspect. Every date meant there was a possibility of someone finally admitting that it was he who knew her better than everyone else.

This time she had really thought she had found him, he had given her pink rose at the end of her first date. He hadn't openly admitted that he was the one who had been sending her roses all these years, but she thought the subtlety of the pink rose was a hint that it was him. But it didn't matter if Amos Diggory was the man of her dreams, because he was a self centered pig.

Amos was a tall and handsome Hufflepuff who had been nothing but kind towards Lily since they had met in their first year at Hogwarts. When he finally asked her out to the Hogsmeade weekend at the beginning of September she thought she had found the one. He was cute and smart, able to hold up his end of the conversation. He held her hand and was kind to her friends, but he was entitled and just a little bit pompous.

At first she thought he was just trying to impress her, she was top of the year so it made sense that he would want to seem intelligent. However, it wasn't long until she realized that it wasn't so much that he wasn't to impress her as much as he wanted to prove himself. He was third in their year, and he never let her forget. He was constantly trying to convince her that if she wasn't so loved by the teachers he would be ahead of her in student ranking. This naturally called into question why he wasn't second in their year. That spot was held by James Potter, the infamous leader of the Marauders. It couldn't be denied that he was smart, but according to Amos, he wasn't as smart as everyone believed. Sure he could pull of pranks and Professor Dumbledore had even been tricked into making him Head Boy, a title Amos believed was rightfully his. But he truly believed that the only reason James Potter had been tolerated at the school and given such high marks each and every years, was because of his name and his money.

Now a few years ago, Lily would have probably agreed with Amos about James. He had spent years walking around Hogwarts as if he owned the place, but something had changed. She now saw him not as pompous but as confident. And yes, there was a very big different. He had grown into his role as head boy and only performed harmless jokes. Jokes which were desperately needed with a war brewing just beyond the school's boundaries. The Marauders didn't aim to harm anyone, they just wanted to have a good laugh, and yes maybe it didn't always have to be at the expense of others, but the majority of the time the pranks were aimed at someone who had wronged them in some way.

Furthermore, as Head Girl and Head Boy, Lily and James were moved from Gryffindor Tower to the Head's dormitory with a joint common room. This allowed Lily to see some of the well kept secrets of the Marauders. Like the fact that they not only did do their homework, but that they studied really hard. The four boys that made up their group of friends were often huddled around the tables in the Head's common room working on homework, taking notes for classes weeks in advance, mastering complicated spells and even doing additional research. Sure when they turned their work into the teachers they always had this persona that they had just finished their essay during the ten minutes before the bell rang, but Lily now knew that the essay had been finished before most students had even thought about opening a book. So instead of agreeing with her boyfriend, Lily found herself defending James Potter to Amos on numerous occasions over the past couple weeks that they had dated.

But that's not really why she had broken up with Amos Diggory, nor was it his thinly veiled comments about how she wasn't actually smart, just well liked by the teachers.

No, the final straw had been the bouquet of lilies he had sent her as an apology for upsetting her. Attached had been a note explaining how he was sorry for starting a fight about how his potion was in fact better than hers and had attempted to prove it by using his freshly brewed batch of love potion on Lily. He then continued on to say he sent these flowers special because he knew lilies were her favorite, because he knew her so well, and that she should forgive him.

Lily had been sitting at breakfast in the Great Hall when the owl arrived with the flowers and perhaps she acted hastily. Once Lily had read the note she turned to look up and down the Hufflepuff table until she found her boyfriend, though not for very much longer, and made eye contact with him. Amos took this as a sign of forgiveness and stood up about to make his way over to her until she began shaking her head angrily. The next thing Lily knew, she had taken her wand and lit the flowers on fire, the smoke billowed up into the air to spell out the words " _It's Over"_ for everyone to see. Then Lily stormed out of the Great Hall, leaving the fire for someone else to deal with.

For the rest of the day, everyone steered clear of Lily. Not wanting to be the next person to set her off. Nobody knew why she had reacted so violently to flowers sent as an apology, this whole situation painted Amos as a victim.

By the time dinner rolled around it was decided that the best option was for her to just forget food altogether and head to her dorm for the rest of the night. As she stepped through the the portrait hole into the Heads Common Room she wasn't surprised to see the couches surrounding the fire to be occupied by the Marauders. They didn't say anything and Lily didn't want to pause to talk so she continued past them and into her room.

After slamming her door to make sure it was shut, she jumped onto her bed head first and buried her head into her pillows to make sure nobody heard her screaming in frustration. She was tired, physically and emotionally drained. She had thought Amos would be the one, or at least better than they other guys she knew.

It was her fault really, she shouldn't expect so much from them. But with each new guy, there was always that hope that he would be the one who knew she hated lilies, or at least had the decency to ask.

Lily was only able to register the fact that she had fallen asleep, when she had finally awoken from her nap. It was dark outside now and as she groped around for her wand she saw her clock flashing that it was already 8:30pm. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again for a couple hours, she decided she might as well read. Once she turned on the light in her room, she searched for the novel she was in the middle of. After five minutes she realized she had left it the common room and despite not wanting to talk to anyone she decided it was better to not be miserable and get her book.

When Lily stepped out into the common room she expected to see the boys where they had been hours earlier. But instead it was just James. Her eyes scanned the room to find that, of course, her book was on the table next to him. She made her way towards him and it wasn't until she had crossed halfway through the room when he looked up at her.

"Hey," Lily decided this was less awkward if she sat down on the couch across from him.

"Hi, how are you feeling?" He asked her, putting down the book he had in his hands.

"Embarrassed mostly. I think I might have reacted a little violently towards Amos." She blushed at the memory of the smoke from the flowers she had set on fire.

"Maybe, but I'm sure he would forgive you." James looked uncomfortable with the conversation.

"Oh Merlin no, I don't want him to take me back" Lily retorted, laughing at the thought. "I just think my methods were a little over the top."

Knowing that she wasn't going to try to get back with the prick, James suddenly felt much more engaged in the conversation. "Well, I think it was a bit hypocritical to be honest. How many times have you yelled at the boys and I for putting on a show?"

"Well, in that case, I guess I learned from the best didn't I?" Lily quickly responded, playfulness in her voice.

"I know it wasn't meant to be, but I'm taking that as a compliment." Lily just smiled in response, she would never admit it, but that had been a compliment.

"So," James continued, "If you don't mind me asking, what brought up such a theatrical response?"

Lily paused for a moment. She wanted to tell him but she was afraid he would say she was crazy. To be honest, she was crazy. "He sent me lilies as an apology." She didn't want to look at him as she spoke the words so instead she turned to focus on the fireplace.

"Ahhh, say no more," Lily's head turned rather violently to look at him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked.

"You have a rather aggressive disdain for lilies, do you not?" James was leaning back against the back of the couch acting as if he hadn't just revealed that he knew all about the biggest secrets she had ever kept to herself.

"How did you know?" She asked, astonished.

"You told me." James smiled at the memory. "I had just been sorted into Gryffindor and I introduced myself to you while the next kid was being sorted. You responded saying your name was Lily and I made the stupid, 'Lily like the flower?' Comment and you responded with a perfectly timed, 'Yeah, congratulations no one in the history of forever has ever made that connection'. You seemed rather irritated with me and I apologized and you said you too we're sorry you just weren't very fond of the flower."

"You remember that?" In that instant she was transported back six years to the day she had met James Potter. "God, I have never told anyone that I didn't like lilies and I trusted you with my secret within 2 seconds of meeting you?" It wasn't really a question James was supposed to answer, it was more stated for internal contemplation. "I wonder if I have told anyone else. I guess that would make sense. Wait!" She had been muttering to herself until that last word when she shouted at him. "You haven't told anyone else have you?"

"No, why would I tell anyone about this, I have to use every advantage I can get." James responded, hurt that she thought he would share privileged information.

"Then who is sending me all the flowers?" Lily shouted and immediately regretted it. She had made it a point to never tell anyone about the roses. "I mean, if I told you and can't remember then I could have told a hundred different people. I thought I was looking for one person who knew about this and took the time to really know me but if I'm just telling everyone and not remembering then it's not as special is it?"

"You don't know?" James looked incredulously at the

"You know?"

"God I'm so stupid," James couldn't look at Lily anymore so he stood up and crossed the room to look at the window but half way there he decided he had to explain himself and turned back around. "I spent hours finding a spell that could make a flower appear in a location I had never seen and I couldn't very well ask for help because my friends would never let me live this down. Finally I found a spell that could make the flower appear but I would just have to kind of wing it when it came to where. Honestly, I thought I had failed the first couple of times. But then I heard Alice and Mary talking about a flower they had seen on your bed. So I kept sending them."

Lily sat there shell-shocked. It had been James the entire time? Of course it had been James. Of course even when she hated him he had tried to make her feel better. If she had learned anything over the past couple of months spending time with him, it was that he rarely did something without thinking it through and everything he did was usually for the benefit of someone else. Event he pranks he pulled were usually meant to cheer someone else up, usually Sirius or Remus. "Why didn't you say anything?" She finally managed to ask.

"Because you would have hated then!" He practically shouted. "Merlin, don't you get it? If I had told you that I knew your big dark lily hating secret, you would have decided you loved the stupid flower. Not to mention sending the roses wasn't about me, it was about you. I was trying to be nice."

"But you let me go out with all these idiots hoping they were sending me roses. All I wanted was to find the one guy who didn't think a lily was my favorite flower because it was my name, as if I chose my damn name in the first place. Hell, Amos gave me roses of a different color and I thought it was him. I stuck with him longer because of those first flowers. You let me go out with that egotistical prick because I thought _he_ was _you._ " At this point she had gotten up to stand in front of him point her finger accusingly at his chest.

"How many times did I ask you out?" James exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "If you had said yes even once then I could have told you."

"Well - that was before you started acting like a normal human being as opposed to a god." Lily reasoned.

"My god woman, how can I possible make you happy with this insane logic?" James asked.

Lily paused for a minute to think it over. He did have a point. But her stupid logic hadn't stopped him in the past, he still sent her the flowers, even when she was angry at him. Those made her happy. Spending time with him made her happy. His friends treating her like a sister made her happy. James made her happy, even before she knew he sent the flowers. This year had been so much better because of him. With a growing smile she looked at the man in front of her. "You already have made me happy." She responded. James looked down at her, clearly confused. So instead, Lily reached up to wrap her arms around his neck. "You make me happy." She whispered again, closing the distance between their lips before kissing him as if to prove her point.

Later that night, after a lot of kissing and even more talking the two went to their separate rooms. Lily was happier than she ever could have imagined this morning. She finally had James. She exited her bathroom after brushing her teeth to find a single red rose on her pillow. She conjured a vase to put the flower in and went to sleep. Thank merlin for her disdain towards lilies.

 **Ok so I have had this idea for a couple years and just haven't been able to get the story just how I like it. This is the best version I have written of it so I think it's finally good enough to post. Let me know.**

 **-The Storywriter**


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